The Type Of Chicken Ina Garten Uses For Salads
Ina Garten knows a thing or two about making a salad. According to Food Network, when it comes to crafting the perfect salad, the Barefoot Contessa has a few simple rules she follows. The first is keeping all of the ingredients the same size. Garten said, "One of the things about making a mixed salad is ... if everything is cut exactly the same size it looks like a really refined salad even though the ingredients are very simple." It also makes it easier to shovel in your mouth. And, of course, she is an advocate for using dry lettuce so your vinaigrette can stick to it and give your salad mixings maximum flavor.
The celebrity cook revealed in an Instagram post that when the Hamptons heat up, she isn't a fan of turning on the oven, and this becomes her ultimate comfort food on a hot day. Her alternative to working in a hot kitchen is to grill a protein and add it to her salad. Garten noted that her protein of choice is generally fish or chicken. So, what type of chicken does she use for her salad?
Keep the bone in and the skin on
In a clip of the "Barefoot Contessa," while making her Chicken and Spinach Waldorf salad, Ina Garten shares that she uses bone-in skin-on chicken breasts. The cooking method she uses is relatively simple too. In the clip, Garten sprinkles the chicken with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Not going to lie, Garten makes this look easy, and her chicken breasts really do look perfect when she pops them out of the oven.
Once the chicken has cooled, Garten shreds the cooked meat. Why white meat? Per MasterClass, chicken breasts are white meat and often considered the healthiest part of the chicken. However, Garten chooses to leave the skin on when she cooks hers. The Washington Post reports that cooking your chicken with the skin on doesn't add fat but actually enhances the flavor of this meat. No wonder Garten's chicken comes out so flawlessly delicious.